How Much Impact Can a New January Signing Have This Season?

Will we get a new toy in the January transfer window?

Who knows, probably not even Arsene.

The question I’d like to ask is ‘how much impact can a new signing make to our Premier League run-in?’.

I was thinking the other day about signings such as Ozil and Pires who both, in their first seasons, had supporters wondering if they were value for money. Of course Bobby went on to be a legitimate Arsenal great. Mesut is fast becoming the same.

We have had January signings like Arshavin who seemed to hit the ground running and helped us to a CL place when it looked in danger (the Arsenal myth generator says that he single-handedly won us qualification ). We shall conveniently forget that those few months were the peak of Andrey’s career with us.

Someone like Gabriel was also signed in January but will only prove his real worth as the seasons progress and the BFG gets sent to the glue factory.

Ian Wright is the best example of a Premier player ready to go off the shelf, as his early Arsenal goalscoring record proves. He won the golden boot in his first season scoring 29 goals, 5 of which were for Palace and memorably snatched the award from a certain Edward Sheringham ( I believe) by scoring a hat trick on the final day of the season.

If we do buy a DM, you’d imagine they will come from another league. Will they have much chance of acclimatising rapidly and playing first team football from the off? What do you think?

I doubt we’ll buy a striker with Giroud and Walcott fit and also with the prospect of Sanchez now back before the new year (not that I’d rely much on that estimate)! But if we do, do you think they would find it easier or harder to settle into the team than a DM?

Written by chas

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This entry was posted on Saturday, December 12th, 2015 at 12:37 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Although, like you, I don’t think we are likely to buy a player for either position but I don’t think that it is impossible.

Let’s say for the sake of the hypothetical that both the Striker and the DM are world class, in this case I would say that the striker would adapt quicker as he has world class players around him such as Ozil, Sanchez and Cazorla; where as, a DM wouldn’t, our defense works but it certainly is not world class and therefore it would take longer for the world class DM to take control of the situation and make it his own which is what a good DM should do.

If the injury jinx is kind to us 🙂 we won’t need one. We cannot go out and buy a better striker than Giroud at the present time. I still have high hopes for Welbeck. The DM position seems to be covered for the time being.

The loss of Santi has meant that Ramsey has shown us a slightly different way of playing from deep midfield and this has also compensated to an extent for the loss of Coquelin.

Flamini has done a decent job and is a better option than Arteta so let’s hope he can stay fit until Coquelin returns.

So all in all, I can’t see anyone coming in unless we bring in a PL player of decent quality (Wanyama?) Buying from abroad is risky as they are unlikely to bed into the EPL quickly enough to make a difference for the rest of this season.

I shall put up my link from yesterday as it goes expertly with the post !………..Now listen knob rots, if the French aristocratic ponce Philippe Auclair say`s we are 99-100% sure of buying in January then we must be !…..this man usually knows even before Arsene knows what he is going to say !….so it must be true !…….if we don’t buy anyone in the January transfer window I will use my moobs as an instrument to facilitate a Bombay roll and give my self a pearl necklace !.

It shows just how fickle fans really are when after one excellent game in the CL some of our previous “misfits” have suddenly become more than adequate and we don’t need to buy replacements. Fickle or what?

Actually, I agree with Kelsey. A backup for Le Coq, not the Monster, will be good. 😛

I dont think we will be active in January. But Arsene has made a confusing comment, which makes me wonder!

On the other hand, does anyone know the truth behind the rumour that we are being investigated for a previous transfer? If we are, maybe we might be very active in January. Who knows? perhaps Arsene? 😛

If you want top quality, you have to pay top money !…………….I think the £230M in the bank would possibly buy us a decent player….maybe one of the chaps in my first sentence !.( and I don’t mean my first sentence of doing bird !……although, Shampoo and Soap Sud Simon could whip up a quality lubricating lather ! )

Chas – In this article from Teamtalk it seems that Alexis is our version of “The Bionic Man” and may be available against Man City.
………………………………………………………………………………………..

Arsene Wenger has refused to rule Alexis Sanchez out of Arsenal’s crunch Premier League clash with Manchester City on Monday week.

The Chile forward is out of action with a hamstring problem but is due to return to training on Monday – one week before City visit the Emirates Stadium in a match which could swing the balance of an ever-changing title race.

Sanchez, 26, picked up his injury in the 1-1 draw at Norwich a fortnight ago with Wenger having to defend his decision to play the former Barcelona man after revealing his hamstring had been affecting him leading up to the game at Carrow Road.

The Gunners have seven first-team regulars out of the picture due to injuries but Sanchez is unquestionably the most valuable asset Wenger has on the shelf.

There is no way he will return in time for Sunday’s trip to bottom side Aston Villa but the Arsenal boss said, with the type of player Sanchez is, he could be involved against Manuel Pellegrini’s side on December 21.

“He is back on Sunday, he trains on Monday morning at 9.30am,” Wenger explained.

“He is running already… I sent him back to Chile, where he has been running with the physio of the national team, and we will see what kind of state he is in next week.

“He may be a bit short for City, certainly, but with Alexis you never know.”

With Sanchez sidelined this weekend, Wenger is likely to start with Theo Walcott out wide and the in-form Olivier Giroud as the main striker.

The France international scored a hat-trick in Wednesday’s 3-0 win in Olympiacos which sealed Arsenal’s place in the Champions League knock-out stages.

Sometimes labelled as a player not good enough to fire Arsenal to trophies, Giroud now has 26 goals for the calender year, with 10 in his past 12 appearances, and Wenger was full of praise for the 29-year-old.

He believes his trio of attacking players can rival the world’s best strikers and feels there is no-one better than Giroud at doing the less attractive tasks of a centre-forward.

When asked if he would rank Giroud alongside the likes of Sergio Aguero, Robert Lewandowski and Karim Benzema, Wenger replied: “Of course, and Walcott as well.

“We have Walcott, Sanchez, Giroud who can all scores goals. They have different styles and that is very important as well.

“I never questioned the fact he (Giroud) will be a very needed striker here. If you go on counter-attack of course he is not the kind of player that you want or select first.

“That is why when we played against Bayern I chose Walcott because you know you play more in your own half and you have to go out quickly.

“When you dominate the game and need presence in the box there is no better player than Olivier.”

Wenger was widely criticised for not signing a new striker over the summer but he reckons that, in not splashing the cash on a player who would be seen as a replacement for Giroud, he has injected some belief into a player who fired unfancied Montpellier to the French title four seasons ago.

“He is in a big club and you have to accept to be questioned,” Wenger added.

“And I believe he can live with that and is used to it now and overall I think as well I heard someone saying if he is on the market tomorrow he would find anywhere, so that show you as well the kind of striker he is. You do not find a lot (of them).”

Straight up- we need another striker and DM.
Counting on Walcott to remain healthy is plain foolishness. He cant be counted to play 25+ games per season-ever!
Ox looks like he has completely lost the plot. Maybe Campbell will finally get a chance to play 10+ games.
Giroud has been playing well, and rest is more a factor than anything. We need DM cover as Flam ain’t lasting the whole rest of the season either. Arteta might not play for us again this year.
Arsenal just needs to spend now or things will go pop.

Funny you speak of Lukaku, GN5…..I was just reading about him on BBC and he seems as reliable as Giroud…who Wenger rates as one of the best in Europe, I too will add my weight behind this and say, I do rate Goroud aswell….very under rated imo and let me be honest….I didn`t have a “Jeffers” hairstyle of late and whilst I`m coming clean……….I like the away kit we wore the other night……and the dirty gold one !……so Arsene is getting something right !. hahaha

From BBC
The best and worse of Lukaku .
Lukaku now has 15 league and cup goals this season, seven in his last six league games and is second in the Premier League’s top scorers with 12 behind Leicester’s Jamie Vardy (14).
His header from Deulofeu’s floated delivery displayed everything that is good about the Belgium striker.
But Lukaku went on to spurn a host of chances as Everton failed to add to their early lead despite dominating a Norwich side that looked desperately short of confidence before the interval.

Of course, if anyone had checked with his personal diary secretary, Eddie Stobart, she would have confirmed that lovely man Chas is out shopping as you said, to make sure he will get each of us a Xmas prezzie and personally deliver it to each one of us! 😀

Was there an element of tautology in the above? Surely not – but as Chas is out buying like there is no tomorrow, I will get away with it!

If you listen to talksport, Micky…….you will know how pissed off Andy Jacobs ( Chav) of the H&J Show is with Maureen for letting Lukaku go !.
Jacobs whines on about how Maureen will not play Costa, rants about how could he (Maureen) not see how much better Lukaku is than Remy, Shavchenko, Falcao, Torres, the Cameroon chap and others !.
If you think some Gooners are bad dissing Wenger, you should listen to Andy Jacobs ranting about Maureen after all the trophies he has won them since they were formed in 2004 !…..it`s funny stuff !

I watched the Everton game Cockie and I was really impressed with Lukaku; he could have had six goals in the first half alone, but they were only half chances. The shots he took were those of an opportunist – just what we need – instead of poncing around..

Anyway Micky !….what`s all this settling to buy someone on the cheap for £30M ?….are you buckling under pressure ?…..I thought it was just me and you who wanted Arsene to spend the whole £230M on one player !…….are you on a diet from gluttonous spending spees of our clubs and somebody elses money ?.

Hey chas !…….been meaning to ask you !…..I see your photo with Nottingham Gooners banner, so was you born in Nottingham ?……if so, it seems that Nottingham is a very generous City….not only did they supply us with our first kit, but like to give us supporters as well !……a nice change after years of having a robbing bastard Sheriff !

Evening all, interesting question Chas, Arshavin is perhaps the only signing in recent memory that had a positive effect, oh and Thierry’sloan spell did lift the mood round the club briefly.

If they come from the EPL I don’t see why they can’t have an instant impact, if it’s someone to support Coq going forward again they can probably have a decent impact although I’m still not sure there are many of those about.

Would a Berahino or Benteke do anything for us, Benteke doesn’t really suit Klopps style so they may be looking to deal. Berahino isn’t getting in WBA and is a tidy finisher with pace and a trick or two.

Benteke could be more like Ollie and I still believe we need two centre forwards like him.

In the midfield role I understand what Coq has brought to the side but we have had to sacrifice Santi deeper to compensate for not having an Arteta in there holding and passing.

Coq can do the passing thing but in possession he is not as good as finding the fouls or wriggling free to pass the ball on. But that’s what Santi brings.

I wouldn’t mind finding someone from within the PL who could do both.

Looking at the PL from 5th down isn interesting picture…..Palace, Watford, West Ham. Who’d have thought that at start of season.

Amazing week for Bournemouth but LVG will be replaced by Pep just has to be and Arsene might soldier on for 2 or 3 years.
in all seriosness it shows you how difficult it is to replace managers like SAF and AW.Most probably will never be seen again for longetivity of management.

On yesterday’s post. I love Highbury and sometimes miss it. Though I never went to a game there, I did the tour. I’ve been to the Ems a few times now, and it was the first of the 5-2 spurs game. Following that game I looked around the stadium from the top tier and to me, it finally felt like home. But the league title will probably go towards making it feel that way for most fans.

Chas,
I think we will sign someone this January to make an impact. Like Arshavin, and all those years ago, Reyes. I think it’ll be someone we have been interested in for a while, and we’ll just bring the deal forward. Considering it’s an impact signing, I’d reckon it would be a striker/winger. But the tricky thing is they’d probably have to not be cup tied in the CL. If we can get Mahrez from Leicester, I think that would be brilliant.

Not sure what the rules are regarding players movin from a europa league club to a cl club.

I can see the logic in loan signings for the midfield if the player we want is unavailable.

Oh and the expected goals metric, despite its name, is not a predictive model.

One of my ManU supporting friends said that Giggs has to take over as manager now, or else there’s no chance of the top 4.

Now apart from the fact that ManU fans’ managerial candidates are now of the Ryan Giggs’ variety, it wasn’t that long ago that Arsenal were constantly criticised for our (minimum) ambition being a place in the top 4.

This year, even Mourinho of all people, has been forced to say that they can get top 4 and that would not be too bad a season. Where’s the ridicule? Especially as these clubs have spent hundreds of millions rather than our net zero spend.

I’m loving this season. My wish is for Arsenal to be champions, Ranieri and Leicester to come second, while Mourinho gets sacked in a too late effort to prevent Chelsea getting relegated, while ManU and Spurs can only manage an EL spot. It is Christmas after all. I can dream .

I think that proven players do not need to adjust to the EPL but to the team, except for 1 position attacking midfielder. Why? Because being in the middle of the park, you see the pace and the physicality all the time – there is no end to it and you are asked to be good both offensively and defensively – which in other leagues is not necessarily the case…

Look at Sanchez – comes in and scores for fun
Look at Ozil and Pires – come in and take time to adjust

I could argue that maybe full backs also need adjustments but for GK, CB, DM, FW/ST – there should not be a problem. As a result even if we get a DM but that DM is a proven quality player, he should be able to hit the ground running in the EPL – he may need time to adjust to the way we play but playing in the EPL should not be too difficult. If we buy a striker and he is proven, same thing – I expect him to score goals as soon as he arrives…but we do not need a striker, we need a FW/W at most…I would be happier if we went in for a DM and a CB…

If we don’t win it, it better be because Leicester have. Otherwise I’ll be peeved. Let’s be honest though, City on their day with all fit probably have the best attack….Sterling, Aguero, De Bruyne is a good three. Defensively I think we are better, Koz and Kompany are level pegging as are BFG and whoever is their second choice on the day. At left back Monreal is probably a little behind Kolarov, and Bellerin is better than Sagna.

Midfield battle, Ozil > Silva, Toure > Santi, Fernandinho = Coquelin.

The key is going to be the subs and squad options, and I actually think we are better in a lot of areas and have at least 16/17 interchangeable players.

Look guys/girls – if we do not run away with the league this year, we will really kick ourselves as this season is really the one where all our main competitors are somehow struggling…All of them! Let us go and get this league: COYG!

Your 6:00 is better, but slightly worrying. Hope you have not got carried away by the midweek result. Let me give you a dose of reality, Arsene will start Ollie ahead of Theo through the middle today. He will have been conned.

As for a January signing – I think no. What’s the point, they will not be EPL ready until March and after that it’s a gamble. By then the rest of the team will be fit and the new toy would be sitting on the bench checking his fat bank balance on weekly basis. Nope, no new toys till summer.

What is even more worrying to me is the fact that we probably won’t need a new toy in July either.

Perhaps we should have a procedure for letting other bloggers know we are dead? Part of the will perhaps? Frankly I’d rather not know you or Micky are gone, I’d rather imagine that you found better things to do 🙂